As a device for analyzing quantitatively the components in a solution, an absorption spectroscopic analysis apparatus has been widely used, which irradiates a light from a light source to the solution, disperses transmitted light by a diffraction grating, and executes absorption measurement for each wavelength. In such an analysis apparatus, in recent years, to reduce reagent cost and lower the load to the environment, it has been required to reduce an amount of reaction liquid. However, in the case where the amount of reaction liquid is reduced, in a conventional reaction container, there has been a problem of generation of air bubbles in dispensing and mixing, making correct measurement difficult, because a total of five surfaces of the bottom surface and the side surfaces are surrounded by walls of plastics or glass or the like. Accordingly, technology has been required, which is capable of operating correctly with a trace amount of liquid without generation of air bubbles.
As one technology for operating with the trace amount of liquid, there is a technology for transferring the liquid by utilization of electrostatic force. This technology utilizes a phenomenon (dielectrophoresis), where substances in an electric field are polarized and moved in a direction where the electric field is focused by electrostatic force, in the electric field generated by applying a DC or AC voltage between a plurality of electrodes. Specifically, liquid is set on one sheet of substrate or sandwiched between two sheets of substrates, and voltage is applied between the plurality of electrodes installed on the substrates to generate an electric field and move the liquid. For example, in Patent Document 1, liquid is transferred by arranging a plurality of electrodes on a substrate, placing the liquid to be transferred on the electrodes, and by applying sequentially the voltage to the plurality of electrodes at the vicinity of the liquid. In addition, in Patent Document 2, a measurement system has been reported, where a sample and a reagent are transferred as liquid, and the sample and the reagent are mixed between substrates to prepare reaction liquid. In the present description, devices utilizing dielectrophoresis are called a liquid transfer devices collectively. In a liquid transfer device, since walls are present only at the bottom surface or at two surfaces of the bottom surface and the upper surface, it is advantageous in reducing the amount of reaction liquid due to less entrainment of air bubbles in operating the liquid, as compared with a reaction container surrounded by walls at five surfaces thereof as in a conventional case.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-10-267801    Patent Document 2: U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,403